I think that Newton's and Leibnitz's coming up with calculus independently and at almost the same time is pretty strong proof that these mathematical theories are discovered.
I think that Newton's and Leibnitz's coming up with calculus independently and at almost the same time is pretty strong proof that these mathematical theories are discovered.
Actually, several scientists coming up with approximately the same thing at approximately the same time is not that surprising to me. Evidently they "network" among themselves quite a bit and will occasionally approach a challenging question (like von Neumann's) somewhat competitively.
Von Nuemann asked the "most intriguing, exciting, and important question of why the molecules . . . are the sort of things they are." The Physics of Symbols - Pattee
Both Newton and Liebniz had access to Barrow's work and to that of Fermat. The fact that finding areas and tangents were inverse operationa had been know for some time. What Newton and Liebniz did was to produce a coherent set of formulae to unify what was a hodge-podge collection of procedures. Newton's methods were clumsy and the Leibniz formulation is what is generally used now. Boyer points out that the calculus was "in the air" at the time.